The invention relates to a removable display surface for use as a cover to a beverage container; more particularly, it relates to a removable and precisely measured independently resilient cover for reusable beverage containers with a promotional or advertising message printed on the cover.
Many kinds of containers, and particularly beverage containers, are placed in public view, both commercially and privately used, and therefore are appropriate for use as display surfaces for various kinds of advertising and promotion. Commercially, beverage containers are on display containing coffee and other beverages; privately, thermos bottles may be viewed by others while in use, both by way of example. The container wall itself however is ill suited to a display surface as it readily becomes marred and disfigured, and the printing matter itself is degraded, so that any such display is a poor display indeed for the subject matter of the advertisement or promotion. As yet however, no feasible and effective display surface has been proposed which may be attached to these beverage containers or other containers so as to adequately address the needs of current advertising and promotional standards.
In recent years, it has come to be recognized that old style coffee warmers and open coffee pots are not in the best interests of the delicate flavor characteristics of a good brew of coffee. To that end, vacuum pots of various shapes and descriptions have become increasingly popular and prevalent, especially in finer commercial coffee houses and restaurants. Such a pot preserves desirable coffee serving temperature with reduced risk of, and exposure to, either burner heat scorching or air oxidation of the coffee esters. They also generally hold more coffee, and can be made available for use and refills by customers in places that are not wired or not safe for warmer burners.
As mentioned, these pots are often highly visible to the customers and could become effective sign boards for the brand of coffee or any other advertising an owner may wish to display in conjunction with the service of the coffee or other beverage. However, with the passing of time and customer use and normal wear and tear (such as by dish washing operations), the vacuum pots themselves can take on unsightly dents and surface mars.
It has been suggested to permanently adhere a surface covering that is specially cut to fit the pot to the outside of the pot. This covering can hold or display various advertising or promotional messages and graphics. These covering systems however suffer from several disadvantages. Because they are permanently adhered to substantially the entire outside surface of the pot, they in effect become a second skin, and as such lose much if not all of the independent resiliency such a covering material might otherwise inherently have. Any blow or other force striking the skin will be transmitted to the pot as well, and any resulting deformation in the pot surface will also show on the tightly adhered covering skin. Also, if the advertising message becomes stale or otherwise out of date, or if the covering begins to show signs of wear or other distress, it must laboriously be removed in its entirety, leaving the pot covered in unsightly adhesive residue until it is recovered, and this operation must be repeated every time it is desirable to change the advertising message.
Other proposed covering systems require application of a heat shrinkable film to a container, with the disadvantages that such films are not readily, and certainly not nondestructively, removable, and rather less control of the kind and quality of printing that may be imprinted on the film, on its resultant resized surface, is possible compared with unshrunk covers.
Other covering system proposals disclose (1) a foam rubber beverage can insulator with flexible sidewall and bottom member with slits on the bottom for expansion and contraction; (2) a wastebasket, or other open container, cover with a flexible sheet to wrap around the side wall of the basket, and clips to detachably interconnect the top and bottom edges of the sheet to the open rims of the container, and Velcro type closures to hold the ends together; and (3) a loose fitting sock-like covering to fit over standing water cooler bottles and the like, or a free standing cylinder of rigid material resting on the cooler apparatus, with holes or viewing ports to show water level and provide air circulation inside the covering.
What is needed is a feasible and effective display surface which may be attached to beverage containers or other containers so as to adequately address the needs of current advertising and promotional standards. In addition, it would be desirable for such a display surface to be easily and readily removable and to possess independent resiliency (and not be just a second skin tight layer). The desired removable display surface would require only cover end attachment by releasable closures, and would provide an excellent base medium for commercial printing processes.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a feasible and effective display surface which may be attached to beverage containers or other containers so as to adequately address the needs of current advertising and promotional standards. It is a further object of the invention to provide in such a display surface an easily and readily removable wrap around cover.
It is another object of the invention to provide a wrap around cover having independent resiliency.
It is another object of the invention to provide a removable display surface requiring only releasable closures for attachment together of its cover ends.
It is another object of the invention to provide a removable display surface in turn providing an excellent base medium for commercial printing processes.
It is yet another object of the invention to meet any or all of the needs summarized above.
These and such other objects of the invention as will become evident from the disclosure below are met by the invention disclosed herein.
The invention addresses and overcomes these difficulties by providing a method for making a precisely measured cover for reusable beverage containers. A covering of independently resilient material is precisely cut to fit a given size and shape of pot, and the material has imprinted on it a desired promotional or advertising message and/or graphics. The covering material is removably fastened to the outside of the pot in such a way as not to impair significantly the natural resiliency of the material. For instance, in one embodiment the covering is fastened to the pot by means of temporary fasteners such as Velcro(copyright) type hook and pile, magnets, removable tape, or the like. Thus, dents in the pot do not generally show in the covering surface because it retains its independent resiliency, even if the blow was delivered through the covering surface. Messages may be changed as often as suits the promotional and decorative needs of the owner of the pot, so the display surface is always timely and in top condition. An optional xe2x80x9cwindowxe2x80x9d permits display of interchangeable labels on the inside of the covering. When the display surface is fully removed, the original surface of the pot is substantially restored to its former appearance. Some of the covers are to be transparent or translucent and are to have graphic images back printed on them. Optionally, a protective plastic covering or overlaminant is attached to the print side of the covering material, so that when the printed cover is in its removed state, the printing will not be accidentally damaged by scratching. Some embodiments employ a nylon fabric cover material with promotional printing.
The invention provides a flexible, removably fastened, precisely fitted container cover having a graphical display imprinted on one side of the cover. The graphical display may be advertising or promotional text and/or non-textual graphical images. The flexibility of the container cover material is to facilitate ready application, removal and reapplication of the container cover to the same or different containers, as often as may be necessitated by the need, for instance, to replace a worn or damaged cover, or to provide a different promotional message. By xe2x80x9cprecisely fittedxe2x80x9d is meant that each cover is measured and cut to substantially exactly fit a particular container or identically sized series of containers, where xe2x80x9cfittingxe2x80x9d means to substantially completely cover the side walls of the container, generally without overlap. In some instances however, some overlap may be advantageously provided for the purpose of providing a fastener mounting surface to facilitate that no fastener parts need be attached in any way to the container itself. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that variations of this dimensioning and fitting may be effected to no particular purpose but to avoid the above definition, in which case such variations are to be regarded as within the scope of this invention. Generally, this invention will find application as a covering for beverage containers of the type used to serve coffee in public establishments; however, the invention is not limited to such a particular container.
Some embodiments of the invention will include a transparent window in the cover, through which a xe2x80x9clabelxe2x80x9d may be viewed through the window. A window is preferably a transparent region of the cover on which no graphic display has been imprinted, but may in some embodiments be effected with a separate transparent material sewn in or otherwise assembled into the cover material itself. A xe2x80x9clabelxe2x80x9d can either be an actual label, such as the name of the blend or beverage being dispensed from the container, or it can be any additional supplemental promotional graphical display information. The label is generally disposed over the window in such a way that the graphic material on the label can be viewed through the window, and the label is preferably attached to the window with a removable pressure sensitive adhesive. However, it will be appreciated that any conventional means for holding a piece of material on which can be printed some graphical information, such as an open ended clear envelope attached to one side of the container cover can advantageously be employed to make the label viewable through the window. Preferred embodiments will have the label holder on the inside or rear surface of the container cover where it may readily be accessed by removing the cover, inserting or replacing the label and reattaching the cover. This arrangement will provide both protection for the label, and facilitate integration of the label into the overall graphical design of the cover.
Some embodiments of the invention will be made of a durable, preferably washable, woven fabric such as nylon ripstop or cordura, and the graphical display is generally imprinted on a front surface of the cover material (xe2x80x9cfront printedxe2x80x9d). Such embodiments may be removed for cleaning as well as for replacement to display different promotional messages. This embodiment will also be especially resistive to displaying or revealing any surface imperfections of the container itself, and will be better able to resist impact damage to the cover material itself. Preferred embodiments will have a second, or inner, fabric layer preferably made of a more tightly woven polyester material for additional resiliency and insulating value.
Other embodiments of the invention will be made of a resilient translucent material, such as clear plastic sheet, with the graphical display imprinted on a rear surface of the cover (xe2x80x9cback printedxe2x80x9d) to better protect the printing itself. Various materials may be employed such as printing grades of Lexan(copyright) brand plastic sheeting and various vinyl sheet materials and all such plastics as will be known by those skilled in art to take and retain a high quality graphical imprint. It will generally not be necessary to take any special precaution or apply any selection criteria relating to heat shrinkability, or thermal stability, as the covering material will generally be removed from the container prior to exposing the container itself to high temperature washing or sterilization. While thermally unstable material will therefore generally not be preferred, its use will not depart from the scope of the invention.
Some embodiments will also employ an overlaminant layer disposed to cover the graphical display imprinted on the rear surface of the clear plastic sheet. Since some embodiments have no attachment whatever of the cover to the container itself, other than that provided by the relatively tight xe2x80x9cwrapxe2x80x9d of the cover on the container and the attachment of one edge of the cover to itself, it is anticipated that some sliding of the cover as wrapped around some of the containers will produce some chaffing or wear of the back printed matter, and possibly some discoloration or staining of the surface of the container itself. Even without such sliding, the removal and replacement of the printed covers will leave the printing exposed to possible damage while the cover is off the container. To forestall any such damage to the printing, an overlaminant layer may be advantageously applied over the printing to seal it from such damage. This layer will preferably be laminated to the cover material by methods well known to those in the art, but may also be adhesively adhered to the printed side of the cover material, or attached in any other way as may seem useful to those skilled in the art.
The overlaminant layer may be clear also, but may also be opaque or even metalized (such as for instance a sheet of aluminized mylar) to provide insulation to the container.
The removable fastening of the cover to the container may be effected by one or more releasable closures. A preferred releasable closure is a paired arrangement of hook and pile closures respectively attached to opposite ends of the cover material. They may be disposed as single strips along the end (adjoining) edges of the cover, or as spaced closure tabs along the adjoining edges of the cover. Alternatively, part of the closure pair may be attached to the container itself to forestall sliding of the cover on the container, and the opposite closure type may be attached to one or both ends of the cover for removable fastening of the cover to the container.
Alternatively, the releasable closures may be paired magnetically active materials, such as two compatibly poled magnets, or a magnet and a strip of ferrous material. For ferrous bodied containers, it may only be necessary to provide a magnetic strip, or magnetic tabs (as described above) along adjoining edges of the cover for magnetic attachment of the cover to the container by the magnets. For non-ferrous container, including some stainless steel types, paired magnets, or a magnet and steel strip combination, will be employed and attached to the cover as described above for hook and pile closures for attaching the cover to the container. In some embodiments, at least one part of the pair of magnetic materials is comprised of a magnet strip and the other part of the pair of magnetic materials is a ferrous container surface to which the magnet strip is attracted. In other embodiments, the pair of magnetic materials is comprised of a pair of magnet strips magnetically attracted to each other.
The invention generally provides a removable wrap around container cover of material providing independent resiliency. By xe2x80x9cindependent resiliencyxe2x80x9d it is generally meant that the material referred to thusly is capable of sustaining an impact, and even of transmitting that impact through to the underlying container, where the impact might cause surface damage to the container such as a dent, but whereby material is capable of rebounding to or resuming its previous shape resiliently so that the cover material does not betray the damage to the container beneath. One way to achieve or preserve this independent resiliency is to forebear to adhere the cover material in any substantial way to the container itself.
Preferred embodiments of the invention will also have at least one guide slot and tab pair with the tab on one end of the cover and the slot near to, or proximate, the opposite end of the cover and generally aligned with its tab mate in a generally parallel way. A slot is proximate an end of the cover material to the extent that there is generally not more of the cover material between the slot or slots and the end than is useful to preserver the physical integrity of the slots themselves on the one hand, and than is useful to effect a mating layer, for use when an optional adhesive material is provided on the contacting surface of one or both of the slot/tab pair so that the tab(s) and mating layer may both or singly be pressed in the direction of the container to be removably adhered to the cover material to form a secure but removable cover attachment.